TSS Question

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I was reading in Allen/Coggan's book that anything below 150 is a low load and full recovery should be expected by the next day.

This weekend I was pressed for time (as usual) and did the following rides:

Saturday: 1.5 hours, including 2X20s: TSS of ~125
Sunday: 2.5 hours, including 1X30 threshold, 1X30 SST, 55 minutes tempo: TSS of ~190

Was Monday properly a recovery day or should I expect to go out and do L3/L4 work. Thoughts?

Is this a dumb question? I can take it ...

Do you feel like Monday was good enough? Although Allen/Coggan have developed good baselines as to what is a "proper recovery time", that's all they are, baselines. Everyone recovers at a different rate.

I would suggest riding on Tuesday and determining if you rested enough. If not, then you know you need more time.

Best
James

Do you feel like Monday was good enough? Although Allen/Coggan have developed good baselines as to what is a "proper recovery time", that's all they are, baselines. Everyone recovers at a different rate.

I would suggest riding on Tuesday and determining if you rested enough. If not, then you know you need more time.

Best
James

Thank you.

I guess I am not sure whether or not my weekend was tough enough to merit recovery, really.

I have engaged a coach starting in November but am trying to make sense of training load in terms of volume/intensity and how TSS/IF etc. can help.

I will ride today. That should give the recovery answer, at least.

Also, don't discount the power of recovery spinning. For me at least, doing some easy spinning goes a long way towards helping me recover from a big day.

Is this a dumb question? I can take it ...No but it's been answered before.

Those were guidelines only and it will differ for everyone. It depends to a large extent on your chronic and acute training loads.

If you are used to training at CTL of 130+ and recent training (ATL) wasn't highly fatiguing, then you probably wouldn't even notice such days as being all that tough. But if your CTL is <50, then these would be hard on you and a recovery would possibly be in order.

Was Monday properly a recovery day or should I expect to go out and do L3/L4 work. Thoughts?
That'd be a somewhat light weekend for me, but it's not so little that you should feel guilty. It sounds like you made the most of being pressed for time.

About Monday: while the guidance says that you should be able to train again, it doesn't really say anything about whether or not you *should*. Look at how that weekend fit into your training routine and where you are in the program to know whether you should give it another go on Monday. For me, I almost always take Monday off (even after a wimpy weekend) because I'm right back at it on Tu/W/Th. If I didn't take a day off on Monday, then I wouldn't get one at all. If there's a week that I know I'll be forced off the bike on a normal training day, then I might substitute with Monday instead. You have to look at the bigger picture.

No but it's been answered before.

Those were guidelines only and it will differ for everyone. It depends to a large extent on your chronic and acute training loads.

If you are used to training at CTL of 130+ and recent training (ATL) wasn't highly fatiguing, then you probably wouldn't even notice such days as being all that tough. But if your CTL is <50, then these would be hard on you and a recovery would possibly be in order.

I guess a CTL of 24.3 is less than 50 :rolleyes:

ATL was 67.2

Today I did quick over/under intervals 3X 2 minutes @ 105% FTP/5 minutes @ 95% FTP.

We'll see how much tempo I can do tomorrow ...

I run a CTL a good bit over 100.

I can ride 3,4, or more hours @ L2/L3 with some good L4/L5 climbing and get 180-250 TSS, be ready to go the next day with no problems.

But, if you toss in an hour and a half or more of upper SST or 2x20's @ 100% training in the same time, fatigue will be higher and my next day's workout would feel quite a bit different. (regardless of ATL/TSB)

If I do 130 TSS that includes good VO2max workout in, I probably won't be rip-rarin to hit the threshold workouts the next day.

All this to say, composition matters.

But at a CTL of less than 50, I would expect a 320 TSS weekend of any composition to take a toll worthy of recovery.